James Franco On 'Spider-Man's' New Direction: 'Tobey's The Best Peter Parker Around'

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James Franco is never one to be shy to say what's on his mind. And at the opening night of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, he said that he would be sad to see his "Spider-Man" franchise cast mates go.

"I think Tobey [Maguire]'s the best Peter Parker around," James, who starred as Harry Osborn in the first installment of the superhero trilogy, told Access Hollywood at the Sundance premiere of his latest film, "Howl," on Thursday.

And he added that seeing director Sam Raimi leave the franchise (as was announced in recent weeks) wouldn't be easy.

"I know that Sam Raimi was so attached to that character and those movies and it was very close to his heart," he said. "It was the perfect franchise for Sam to work on, so I'm sad for him."

Still, James said he had hope for the upcoming Marc Webb-directed reboot, due in 2012.

"I could be proven wrong and there's some young Peter Parker," he said. "I hope they don't rush into it with this new group because everyone still has the old one in mind. The Batman franchise, they had some time to turn it around and make it something new."

As for James himself, he's onto a number of new things – including his guest arc on "30 Rock" and the starring role in "Howl," a biopic of Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg.

"I [have] been a fan of Ginsberg since I was about 15 or 16," James told Access, adding that the script sold him on the project. "It was a very unconventional script — I think there might have been illustrations in [it]."

And the actor's not quite done with his soap opera stint on "General Hospital" – he brought his own crew to the set and the results will be displayed as an art show at Deitch Projects in New York City in May, which will in turn become another episode of the daytime show.

"We're going to bring some of the cast out from 'General Hospital' and we'll film one more meta-episode at Deitch Projects," he said.